From The Ashes
by FinnickOdair-Will-Live-Forever
Summary: It's a slow process for Day, regaining all that he has lost. But one balmy evening in the Republic of America, he sees her. The faceless, dark-haired girl that has haunted him for years. And all of a sudden, it starts to click into place again. Oneshot.


**I've never written any fanfiction for Legend before, so hopefully the characters aren't really OOC. This is just a quick oneshot that came to me whilst reading the epilogue, I hope you enjoy it. :)**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the Legend trilogy.**

For the first few years of Day's life, there was nothing. No brief flashbacks, no short but sweet moments of remembrance, not even a gunshot or explosion in a dream. There was a gaping hole in his head where the last year of his life should have been.

It wasn't all bad for him, though. The rehab program that Antarctica had assigned to him was working wonders for him both physically and mentally. After almost no time, he had been back to his agile ways with barely even a scar to remind him that he had been filled with bullets.

Eden was advancing in his new academy. The Antarcticans greatly encouraged his skills, and Day got to watch as he soared past his older classmates on his way to becoming one of the youngest engineers to graduate his academy. This remind Day of something, but he couldn't quite place what it was.

Day, although he had started to introduce himself as 'Daniel' again, dated a few girls as the years flew by in Antarctica. There was Azelie, who had dark hair and bright eyes not too different from his own. She was a gifted politician, tapped to assist their leader one day. Their brief relationship had only lasted two months. Then there was Cameone, with her blonde hair and strict expression. She was older than day, a social worker that brought young children in from the streets and rehoused them. Her job attracted Day to her, but they fizzled out after a mere six weeks. Then there was Brionna, Zinevra and Ejana. None could keep Day for more than a month. With every girl he was with, he found himself feeling like he was missing something. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was enough to stir something in his chest every time he thought about it.

He was twenty two when the memories came back in flashes. It had been five years after Day awoke from his coma when the memories, broken and scattered, appeared in his dreams. An icy fist gripped his heart as men clothed in black sprayed an unidentifiable symbol onto his family's door. A knife embedded in a soldier's arm. A faceless man shot his mother in front of his home. He watched his brother die on a bright screen. A gunshot, piercing pain in his leg, the metallic taste of blood in his mouth and the sun beating down on his exhausted body. A girl, surrounded by a dusty haze. Dark eyes flecked with gold. The ring he still wore, even now. None of it made sense to him. It drove him crazy, kept him awake at night.

Eden grew older. His eyesight got better. Day worked various jobs. They moved into a new apartment, they saved up some money for themselves. He exchanged phone calls and letters with Tess, and he slowly started to piece together the most painful of his memories. His mother had been killed by a young captain whose name was just out of his memory's reach. A faceless girl who stirred something unfamiliar inside of him had arrested him, but he hadn't hated her for it. A female commander had ordered his execution. John had taken his place.

More years passed. The early years were almost completely together, right up until the moment that the Patriots fixed his leg in Vegas. Except…Day was missing something. A girl was with him the whole way there, but she had no name. No face. He felt something strong for her, but he didn't know what it was. Dark hair, gold flecked eyes and an unfamiliar feeling stirring inside of him was all Day had of her.

It was driving him _insane._

More time. More years. More dreams. Stolen kisses, soft hair against his cheek, a metal ring. A night came back to him in flashes- cool lips, soft skin and the heat of it all. A sobbing wreck hunched over his almost lifeless body. There was still no face, but it was the foundations of his recovery. He would get back those memories someday.

The Patriots returned to him. He remembered Kaede, Razor, Pascao. Fighting against the Republic, and then fighting for the Republic against the Colonies. The memories were scattered and his mind mixed them around sometimes, but he was remembering. Slowly, very slowly. But it was there.

…

The Republic was very different to how Day remembered it. The lights were brighter, the air was calmer. Everything about it was _better_ , an ideal location for Eden and himself now that the war had come and gone. Day remembered taking a disliking to the Elector Anden for some reason that he couldn't for life of him remember, but he had to admit that the Republic was thriving under his strong command.

The interview had gone well, or some Eden had informed him.

"Honestly, Daniel. It was great. You should have seen what contraptions I created for them in the practical stage!"

"Careful, Eden. Don't get too over-confident, yeah?" Day had said, but he had continued to listen as Eden talked his ear off about how fantastically his interview for the engineering position had gone. He had grown into a fine young man, a shadow of Day himself. He was a logical thinker and one of the smartest people he had ever met. There was an equally smart person that he knew, lost somewhere in the void of his head.

A woman was approaching them for far ahead on the dark track.

"It's an amazing opportunity. I hope I get the job." The closer she got, the less of Eden's words were listened to by Day. Even from a distance, the woman was doing something to Day's insides. His heart started to pound, his palms were sweating and his knees were weak. It was as if his body was remembering something that his mind did not.

The girl drew closer still, and Eden's rambling slowed to a stop as she allowed herself to peer cautiously at Day's younger brother. Day looked at her. His heart rate was so fast it nearly killed him. He didn't know how he knew, hell, he didn't even know _her_ , but there was something in those gold flecked eyes. Something that stirred the memories lurking just out of his reach.

Then in a second, she was behind them.

Day's mouth hung open as he took a second look at the woman's retreating figure. His chest felt set to explode, his heart a sticking time bomb.

"She…" He couldn't find the words.

"Go." A ghost of a smile lit up Eden's face.

Day didn't even hesitate. He wanted to walk calmly after the dark haired mystery, but his feet took over and he was by her in a second.

"Excuse me." Her eyes held Day in a trance. "Have we met before?

"No. Sorry." She whispers back. He didn't expect her words to cut him to the quick, but they did. He struggled to place her. He tried to fight through the murky darkness of his lost memories, to find this girl in his head. They talked some more, but Day barely registered her words. He was too busy trying to place the voice.

"I've been searching a long time for something I think I lost." He said, because it was true. In all of the girls he had dated, there was a certain quality that he had been missing, that he could never quite figure out and never quite find.

They talk even more. It comes back to him in flashes. A wine infused kiss in a dark alleyway. The dark-hair woman, at the time a fresh-faced teenage girl, supporting him through the hallways of Batalla hall. The rain lashed against the rooftops as he bandaged her shoulder. The Patriots, the botched assassination, their final kiss before he left her for months. Their reunion. Their night of heat and passion. The torment in her voice when she found that he did not know how to forgive. Her hunched figure weeping over his bullet filled body. The dark-haired girl had a face. And her name was June Iparis.

"It's you."

It wasn't all there, but Day hoped that one day it would be. Years of recovery had eased the pain in his eyes. He could remember his mother with a smile, memories of John could make him laugh. He could forgive. He didn't blame her.

Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months. Months turned to a year. One year turned to two. Every moment he spent with June helped to heal his fractured mind. Getting to know her again was almost as soul-lifting as meeting her the first time. Until one day, four months into their second try at a relationship, he burst into her apartment in the middle of the night.

"What's wrong?!" June was up with her gun drawn the instant he was inside her room. Her eyes scanned his face, always calculating. To him, June was brilliant. She was twenty nine now, but when Day looked at her he still saw the strong prodigy that had saved his life and made him whole in the midst of a war. She was his. He was hers.

"I remember. Everything."

"Really?" June inhaled sharply as she lowered her gun. Day crossed the room in three short paces and took her face in his hands. He pressed his mouth to hers, drinking in all that she was, all that they had been and all that they could be once more.

"Daniel…" She breathed when he finally pulled away. Her cheeks were flushed red, and Day had never seen a sight so beautiful in his life.

"Can you forgive?" June seemed almost afraid to ask the question. Almost. Her eyes were alight, the hope shinning in them like a beacon.

"I forgave a long time ago." He kissed her again, and tasted the fear they had felt in those early months together, when they had stormed the castle.

"I love you, June Iparis." He said breathlessly against her ear.

"I love you too, Daniel Altan Wing."


End file.
